No. 301
January 2010

In This Issue

A new strategy for saving tropical forest species was published in the journal Science on the eve of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark, by a team of researchers, including William Laurance, senior staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and distinguished professor at James Cook University. The authors state that wealthy countries should adopt a carbon-payment system that explicitly incorporates biodiversity values.

"If we're smart we could combat global warming while saving some of the most endangered wildlife on Earth," said Laurance. "Billions of dollars will be spent on forest-carbon initiatives in the next decade, and this could translate into huge benefits for vanishing species if we focus some of the spending in places where tropical biodiversity is most imperiled."

Destruction of tropical forests causes about 20 percent of human-caused carbon emissions. In strategies to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, carbon-producing nations pay tropical countries to keep some of their land in forest. The authors, mostly researchers working with Hugh Possingham, director of the Ecology Centre at the University of Queensland, evaluated several carbon-based credit scenarios.

"Dollar for dollar, a carbon-focused approach contributes little to slowing biodiversity loss and will save far fewer species than a biodiversity-focused strategy that targets the most imperiled forests," said lead author Oscar Venter, doctoral candidate at the University of Queensland.

A biodiversity-based system would change where carbon funds are spent, resulting in less money for areas like the Amazon where relatively few species are endangered because considerable forest remains. Spending to stem biodiversity loss would favor high-biodiversity nations in Southeast Asia, where most forests have already vanished.

The Smithsonian's Center for Conservation Education and Sustainability and the George Mason Center for Conservation Studies is offering a graduate and professional course, "Species Monitoring and Conservation: Amphibians," at the Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Virginia, on May 16-28, 2010. The course will engage graduate students and practitioners in developing skills, approaches and solutions applicable to the worldwide extinction crisis affecting amphibians. Course participants will explore the many tools and techniques for in-situ and ex-situ amphibian research and conservation practice. The course fee is $2,750, which includes instruction and course materials as well as all meals, lodging, and transport to/from Dulles Airport (IAD). Course participants who seek credit through George Mason University must meet Mason graduate admissions standards and complete additional project-focused coursework. Out-of-state participants pay additional tuition to receive credit. Contact zootraining@si.edu for additional information.

Brook, S., Grant, A., and Bell, D. 2009. Can land crabs be used as a rapid ecosystem evaluation tool? A test using distribution and abundance of several genera from the Seychelles. Acta Oecol. 35(5):711-719.

Crabtree, D.L., and Smith, T.A. 2009. Population attributes of an endangered mussel, Epioblasma torulosa rangiana (northern riffleshell), in French Creek and implications for its recovery. Northeastern Nat. 16(3):339-354.

Domínguez-Domínguez, O., Pérez-Rodríguez, R., Escalera-Vázquez, L.H., and Doadrio, I. 2009. Two new species of the genus Notropis Rafinesque, 1817 (Actinopterygii, Cyprinidae) from the Lerma River Basin in Central Mexico. Hidrobiologica 19(2):159-172.

Godoy, O., Castro-Díez, P., Valladares, F., and Costa-Tenorio, M. 2009. Different flowering phenology of alien invasive species in Spain: evidence for the use of an empty temporal niche? Plant Biol. 11(6):803-811.

Lockwood, J.L., Cassey, P., and Blackburn, T.M. 2009. The more you introduce the more you get: the role of colonization pressure and propagule pressure in invasion ecology. Divers. Distrib. 15(5):904-910.

Tscheulin, T., Petanidou, T., Potts, S.G., and Settele, J. 2009. The impact of Solanum elaeagnifolium, an invasive plant in the Mediterranean, on the flower visitation and seed set of the native co-flowering species Glaucium flavum. Plant Ecol. 205(1):77-85.